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The Impossibility of Johnston saving Vicksburg

The Mobile Register says:

‘ The proposition of the fall of Vicksburg being absolute, it is now plain that it has fallen with the least possible harm to us. If it had held out only twenty-four hours longer, Johnston's army would, without any doubt, have been out to pieces. Johnston was on the Big Black, and on Saturday night his army bivouacked with orders to move on Grant's entrenchments at two o'clock in the morning. Before the hour arrived, the news of Pemberton's capitulation was received. From what has since been learned of Grant's position, it is now known that if Johnston's force had been doubled and troubled it could never have got through the works of Grant. The country for miles was defended by felled timber — every gorge and ravine a fortified work, bristling with cannon, and converted into a slaughter pen. We are credibly informed that it took some of our paroled officers at Vicksburg fifteen hours to ride fifteen miles through the felled timber and around the excavations and embankments made by the enemy. How long would it have taken an army to march through the same works defended by a superior force? We claim that we have been fortunate in saving the gallant little army of Johnston, as well as the Vicksburg garrison, from further loss. The latter will before long be exchanged and enabled to take the field again.

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Johnston (5)
U. S. Grant (3)
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